You think I don’t know what it’s like to not be beautiful? You speak like you do. You talk like you know of my struggles, like you’ve faced my pain, like you have witnessed me hunched over a toilet seat, a toothbrush dangling lazily from my lips, and not because I used it to clean… Continue reading Johari Window
Tag: life
A little less happy, a little more joyful: Christmas 2017
Sitting in the car with the windows half-open, the muggy Manila air half-choking us with the heavy weight of smog, I turned to you, stared at your face half-asleep, and asked, "Are you happy?" In the only way you know how, you pressed the palms of your hand on your eyes, and you replied,… Continue reading A little less happy, a little more joyful: Christmas 2017
An Ode to a Friend
I haven’t had the time to grieve properly since you left, though for some macabre way, I am glad you left the way you did — at peace, as the sun rose, lying on your side, the way you’d always do when you’re completely at rest. I guess that's why I used this photo of… Continue reading An Ode to a Friend
Blankets (Craig Thompson)
(N.B. It's summer break, and while my two months will revolve around my internship, I realise this is the first time in a while that I'll be able to have time to read the hordes of books I've accumulated over the past year or so. Here's to hoping I actually push through with this!) … Continue reading Blankets (Craig Thompson)
Ordinary miracles
I wish the palms of my hand were big enough to create shelters for those who have no home to call their own. I wish my voice were loud enough to speak for those whose voices have been silenced, whose rights trampled, whose dreams crushed. I wish I had pockets deep enough to assist… Continue reading Ordinary miracles
Kota: Tips and Tricks (and Stuff I Wish I’d Known)
To the Filipino hiker, Mt. Kinabalu isn't as hard the way conventional Filipino mountains are hard. Where Filipino mountains rely on natural trails (a root becomes a step, a branch, your foothold), Mt. Kinabalu is 80% stairs. This means the best way to train for Kota is not exactly to run hills, or to climb… Continue reading Kota: Tips and Tricks (and Stuff I Wish I’d Known)
Kota Kinabalu
It’s been more than a week since the Kota Kinabalu experience, otherwise known as that time I stuck with a booking I made one month into the semester because I was already tired of the academic workload. And really, every time I close my eyes, it’s still the chilly air I feel, and the gentle… Continue reading Kota Kinabalu
Great Balancing Act
The end of every year shows Twitter in a flurry of activities: people tweeting about the things they're grateful for; about things they wish they had done, or done better; about lessons they learned or lessons they wish they were taught. On my part, I decided to go on a sharing spree about the good… Continue reading Great Balancing Act
Off to save the world
Moana, the new Disney protagonist, is the curly-haired, dark-skinned daughter of the chieftain of one of the islands in the middle of the Pacific. And over the course of the past two weeks, I've had people approach me and tell me I remind them so much of the character. To which I reply with a… Continue reading Off to save the world
Of family
I write this sitting next to 3 other people poring over their journals, scribbling furiously to translate into writing the words playing around in their head, some resorting to doodles only they can understand: an attempt to remember things -- trips and falls, bumps and scratches, summits and jump offs. I write this slumped… Continue reading Of family
Of perpetual finds 